Amazon tests humanoid robots as retailers pour $$ into automation

Optimus Prime membership… Amazon said it’s testing humanoid bots designed to carry products around its sprawling sorting facilities. Dubbed “Digits,” the robots sport legs and arms complete with hand-like manipulators. As Amazon scrambles to hire 250K workers for the holidays, it’s looking for bots that are as agile as humans — but don’t get tired or injured. FYI: leaked docs said Amazon may run out of US warehouse workers by next year. The retail heavyweight is also using robots to do what people can’t:

• A bird, a plane… a drone bringing you asthma meds? Last week Amazon said it’d start using drones to deliver drugs in a Texas town. By the end of this decade, it hopes to deliver 500M packages/year by drone (ambitious). 

• Like HAL 9000… for sorting. Amazon recently launched a new warehouse-management system called Sequoia, which it says can cut down fulfillment time by a whopping 25%.

All in on automation… Over the past decade, the # of bots made by Amazon shot to 750K from 10K. Bezos’ behemoth isn’t alone in its robo-fying push: Walmart said it aims to have 65% of its stores using automation by 2026, saying it could boost revenue by $130B within five years. It already has a Florida warehouse that’s nearly completely automated (picture: humans supervising autonomous forklifts). On the consumer-facing side, Kroger — America’s largest grocer — is experimenting with fully self-checkout stores. And yet automation’s true secret sauce may still be brewing…